FireWire – Gigaomhttp://gigaom.com
The industry leader in emerging technology researchSat, 17 Feb 2018 13:00:39 +0000en-UShourly1A peek inside the new Apple Thunderbolt cablehttp://gigaom.com/2011/06/30/a-peek-inside-the-new-apple-thunderbolt-cable/
http://gigaom.com/2011/06/30/a-peek-inside-the-new-apple-thunderbolt-cable/#commentsThu, 30 Jun 2011 13:28:28 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=370126The new Apple Thunderbolt cable comes with a $49 price tag, which is a bit pricey, and the first Thunderbolt (s intc) accessories available require you to buy one separately. Teardown company iFixit took a peek inside one of the new cables and came up with a good reason why Thunderbolt costs so much.

Each cable has a controller at either end, which is used to regulate the speed of data transfer and boost the signal to make Thunderbolt’s extremely low-latency transmission possible. Each end contains 6 chips, including 2 Gennum GN2033s and 4 smaller ones, making for a total of 12 chips in each cable. This makes the Thunderbolt cable an “active” cable that has its own internal firmware and allows it to manage the high two-channel independent 10 Gbps transmission speeds.

But it also isn’t cheap. And for right now, Apple (s aapl) is the only game in town when it comes to Thunderbolt cable suppliers. As Ars Technica points out, the situation bears some similarity to the early days of FireWire, which was initially very costly and limited to Apple because of unfavorable costs when compared to USB. Apple didn’t help things by initially requiring licensing fees for the use of the FireWire trademark and logo. Ars argues that the similar high costs of Thunderbolt could limit its ability to gain a real foothold.

I see the similarities between Thunderbolt and FireWire, but I think it’s too early to assign them the same ultimate fate. For one thing, Apple is well aware of how the FireWire situation panned out. The Mac maker isn’t likely to repeat the same missteps with Thunderbolt if it really does intend for the tech to have wide applicability. Second, Thunderbolt is like FireWire, but they also can’t really be compared in terms of what they allow a user to potentially do. Display connectivity, along with speeds that basically allow Thunderbolt to act as an external PCI connector, give it a much broader scope in terms of applicability. Want to set up a server with upwards of 50 terabytes of storage running through a Mac mini? Easy (and relatively cheap using the new Pegasus RAID drives), once an updated Mac hits the market. Plus there’s always the scenario of the computer-on-a-drive that can be booted from any Mac, apps, files and settings intact.

Apple is also in a much different position than it was when it introduced FireWire. Its share of the PC market has never been stronger, and it continues to experience growth in that sector. It also has a huge chunk of the rapidly expanding mobile industry, thanks to the iPhone, iPod and iPad. While Thunderbolt tech hasn’t yet made an appearance on the mobile side of Apple’s business, I think it’s only a matter of time before it does. And then it doesn’t matter who else embraces it.

Most modern Macs (s aapl), except for the MacBook Air and some MacBook models (such as my late 2008 unibody, alas), offer both FireWire and USB connections, so when shopping for an external hard drive you have plenty of options for something that will work with your Mac, notes Macworld’s James Galbraith. And these days, he adds, USB hard drives are more common and less expensive than FireWire or even FireWire/USB combo drives.

True, but even though USB 2.0 has a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 480 Mbps, vs. a nominal 400 Mbps for FireWire 400, via real-world experience I can attest that USB 2.0 lags well behind FireWire 400 — to say nothing of the FireWire 800 used on all Macs still sold today with FireWire support. And adding insult to injury, USB 2.0 doesn’t support incredibly useful Target Disk Mode. I’ve also found that while booting a Mac from a USB 2.0 drive is possible, it’s not nearly as satisfactory and low-hassle (or speedy) as booting from FireWire drives.

My gut-level impressions are borne out by Macworld’s lab testing, which found, for instance, that with a Western Digital My Book Studio 2TB Western Digital My Book Studio drive connected to a MacBook Pro, copying a 1GB file took 23 percent less time over FireWire 400 than over USB 2.0, while duplicating that file using FireWire 400 on the WD drive took 10 percent less time than when run over USB 2.0, and that FireWire 800 proved 35-58 percent faster than USB 2.0 in various tests on the MacBook Pro with the My Book Studio. Similar comparative results were noted using a compact Verbatim portable drive with the MacBook Pro.

However, the report also notes that the imminent release of USB 3.0 products in early 2010 promises speeds greater than FireWire 800 or even eSATA, but suggests that it may be some time before Apple begins supporting USB 3.0 with compatible ports (which will be backwards-compatible for USB 1.1 and 2.0 devices on Mac systems).

In the meantime, even a USB 2.0 only external hard drive is the best choice for a backup medium for most of us, especially using Time Machine in OS X 10.5 and 10.6 But my recommendation is to spend a few more dollars if necessary and get an external drive with multiple I/O interface support. Quad interface drives are becoming quite popular, able to handle USB 2.0 (and hopefully soon USB 3.0) plus FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA interfaces.

What’s your favorite backup medium and I/O interface?

]]>http://gigaom.com/2010/01/12/firewire-vs-usb-which-is-faster/feed/32USB 3.0 Almost Here, but Apple Jumped the Gunhttp://gigaom.com/2009/01/12/usb-30-almost-here-but-apple-jumped-the-gun/
http://gigaom.com/2009/01/12/usb-30-almost-here-but-apple-jumped-the-gun/#commentsMon, 12 Jan 2009 22:00:13 +0000http://theappleblog.com/?p=14466There’s pretty universal consensus in the Mac portable community that Apple jumped the gun in dropping FireWire support from the new unibody MacBooks, with nothing adequate to replace its full functionality. Sure, you can transfer and backup files reasonably efficiently over a USB 2.0 connection, but you can’t boot your Mac (at least conveniently and dependably) from an OS X install on a USB drive, and USB has nothing at all to replace FireWire Target Disk Mode.

For a concrete example of what a huge deficiency that is, over several days last week I booted and ran my G4 PowerBook from a clone of my hard drive and system on an external FireWire drive while I dealt with a stubborn issue afflicting the OS X Leopard install on its internal hard drive. If a similar issue cropped up with one of the new, FireWire-less Macbooks, dealing with this problem would have been far more difficult, inconvenient, time-consuming, not to mention disruptive of my be ability to continue using the machine for production work in the meantime.
I would like to think that Apple has listened to the howls of dismay over their misbegotten decision, and will restore a FireWire port on the Revision B unibody MacBooks. After all, the original Clamshell iBook was initially released without FireWire support, but it was added with the final revision of that model. However, that was in 2000; this is now, and I’m not inclined to be holding my breath waiting for Apple to blink on this.

One reason is that USB 3.0 is coming. Now I hasten to emphasize that there is no indication I’m aware of that USB 3.0 will support any analog of FireWire Target Disk mode, but there is probable cause to imagine that Apple may be working on making it conveniently bootable. The MacBook Air, for example, can boot from its optional proprietary external USB optical drive.

A company called Symwave Inc. demonstrated what it claims to be the world’s first consumer application of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 at the Computer Electronics Show at Las Vegas last week.

USB 3.0 will reportedly be about 10 times faster than USB 2.0 with a maximum throughput of 4.8 Gbit/s, which should make it faster than even FireWire 800, which is still supported (plus FireWire 400 through an optional adapter) by the unibody MacBook Pro.

Symwave says it is collaborating with leading test, cable, components and hard drive manufacturers to demonstrate the transfer speeds of USB 3.0 and will showcase streaming data to and from external storage devices at speeds previously unattainable, predicting that SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is poised to become the most pervasive high-speed connectivity technology over the coming years, and it is backwards port compatible with the more than 10 billion USB devices shipped to date.

Presumably, Apple will be getting on board with USB 3.0, and it should be an exciting technological advance in some ways, but they still were too quick pulling the plug on FireWire with the MacBook.

]]>http://gigaom.com/2009/01/12/usb-30-almost-here-but-apple-jumped-the-gun/feed/22Targus High-Speed Cable a Solution for FireWire-less File Transferhttp://gigaom.com/2008/12/17/targus-usb-20-high-speed-file-transfer-cable-a-solution-for-firewire-less-macbooks/
http://gigaom.com/2008/12/17/targus-usb-20-high-speed-file-transfer-cable-a-solution-for-firewire-less-macbooks/#commentsWed, 17 Dec 2008 14:00:19 +0000http://theappleblog.com/?p=13189Apple’s decision to not equip the new unibody MacBook with a FireWire port has been as popular as the proverbial skunk at a garden party, at least with seasoned Mac users. Aside from the MacBook Air, which suffers from manifold deficiencies in the I/O department, the last Apple portable that shipped without FireWire was the Revision B clamshell iBook in 2000. We’ve kinda gotten used to having it.

So, are you, like many, taken with the new MacBook (and there are plenty of reasons to be), but wondering how you could get along without FireWire? A new product from Targus could be your solution.

That is if your main concern about going FireWire-less is how to handle fast, computer-to-computer file transfers. The Targus USB 2.0 High-Speed File Transfer Cable for Mac can’t help you with connecting to your FireWire video camera or scanner, but it’s a surprisingly slick and satisfactory substitute for the file transfer aspect of FireWire Target Disk Mode, in some respects even more convenient.

Supports Both USB 2 and USB 1.1

The High-Speed File Transfer Cable is designed to facilitate transferring large (or small) amounts of data from computer to computer via their USB ports, and its arrival on the scene is timely for those with FireWire-bereft MacBooks and MacBook Airs. It works with either USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 ports alike. USB 1.1 is pretty slow for moving large files, although I found it works just fine for moving a document or two from one computer to another on my old Pismo PowerBooks which support only USB 1.1, either connected to each other or to my USB 2-equipped PowerBook G4.

This cable can also substitute for other forms of media like CD’s or DVD’s for data transfers and it’s a lot faster and more convenient that burning to disks. A maximum nominal transfer rate of 480 Mbps is claimed but unlikely to ever be attained in real world use, with something like 260 Mbps more likely on most machines. However some testers have reported that USB throughput on the unibody MacBooks seems to be faster than we’re accustomed to.

The genius of the Targus High-Speed Data Transfer Cable is that it includes built-in file transfer software called EasySuite in versions that work with both Mac OS X and Windows OS, and can be used to transfer files cross-platform as well as from Mac-to-Mac or Windows-to-Windows, the latter which is of course not supported by FireWire Target Disk Mode, and one of the computers doesn’t have to be shut down and restarted in order to set up file transfers, so connect/disconnect is quick and convenient. The EasySuite software requires no installation, as it lives stored on 2MB of flash memory inside the larger of the cable’s two USB connector plugs.

Easy File Transfers

When you connect the cable, the EasySuite “CD-ROM drive” icon appears on the computers’ respective Desktops. Open the drive window and double-click the EasyMacCopy icon to start the file transfer application. Once EasyMacCopy has started up on both computers (takes but a few seconds), file transfer windows open showing the remote computer in the top panel and the local computer in the bottom panel.

Now you can select the file(s) or folder(s) you want to transfer using standard OS X Finder navigation, and drag & drop it to the destination drive window. When all transfers are complete, quit the EasyMacCopy applications and eject the virtual “drives.”

My enthusiastic use and promotion of Growl should come as no surprise to regular readers of The Apple Blog. While some dismiss it as an annoyance reminiscent of the Windows notification popups, others — like myself – view it as a way be informed without stopping what I am currently doing (and that is definitely not the case with its Windows pseudo-counterpart).

Even though many of the applications and utilities that help me with my daily workflows have embedded Growl support in some fashion, there is one use of Growl that may help convert even the most stalwart Growl skeptic: Hardware Growler.

Setting Up Hardware Growler

You’ll find this handy utility in the “Extras” folder on your Growl installer disk image. It’s main purpose is to fire off a Growl notification each time devices are connected or disconnected from your Mac, and includes support for FireWire, USB and filesystem volumes (i.e. disks) as well as Bluetooth devices and network interfaces. Unfortunately, to make the best of use of Hardware Growler, you will have to do some work to get it installed properly.

First, copy the “Hardware Growler” application to either “/Applications” or “/Applications/Utilities” on your Mac. The application itself is nothing to write home about. Double-click on it to see a very sparse menu and an innocuous Dock icon. The “Preferences” window is even sparse, only providing a means to enable or disable a notification about what devices are currently connected upon startup of Hardware Growler (not very useful, at least for me).

You can leave Hardware Growler running this way and it will go about it’s job quite nicely. However, since it is not really an interactive program, it would be best to “make it go away”, especially if you happen to miss-hit a Cmd-Q and accicentally cancel out of it. The easiest way to accomplish this is to modify one of the Hardware Growler configuration files.

Depending on where you decided to install Hardware Growler, either open /Applications/HardwareGrowler.app/Contents/Info.plist or /Applications/Utilities/HardwareGrowler.app/Contents/Info.plist add the following two lines after the <dict> line:

<dict>
<key>LSUIElement</key>
<true/>

You will need to quit and re-start Hardware Grolwer for this setting to take effect. (CocoaDev has more good info on the LSUIelement propery.)

Next, to make it even easier to ensure Hardware Growler is running after you login, go to System Preferences > Accounts and add it as a “Login Item” and check the “Hide” checkbox just for good measure.

Using Hardware Growler to Spy on Your System & Applications

Because Hardware Growler hooks itself into the device events on your system, you now have the opportunity to see some of what happens underneath the pretty OS X GUI. While you should be aware of when you connect FireWire and USB devices, Hardware Growler still notifies you when those devices are inserted or removed and having a notification of that may help troubleshoot issues.

For me, it is very handy to be notified when my Option Express 3G card suddenly decides to disconnect itself from the card slot and it has saved me a ton of grief. Expanding on that particular example, you will see that many PCI ExpressCard adapters show up as USB devices. This is actually the most common way for vendors to utilize the ExpressCard slot and you really are not getting much benefit out of using the card versus an external adapter, apart from freeing up an external USB slot for other uses.

One activity that is especially interesting to have a view into is when your applications that are set to auto-update are downloading and mounting disk images. I managed to “spy” on the Google updater (no screen capture, though) doing it’s work just this past week (I had actually forgotten I let it auto-update).

Gaining a view into network-related events is also pretty handy. Not only will you see which adapter is connecting, you will also see the current MAC (unique hardware) address and all changes of IP address. This can be especially handy when you are attempting to diagnose connection issues.

If you do decide to give Hardware Growler a try, let it run in the background for a week as you go about your workflow. I think you’ll find the experience illuminating and you may just gain more insight into how your system and many of your applications work.

That was the first thought I had when Apple unveiled the new aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro on October 14.

Many Mac owners out there are still longing for a successor to the PowerBook G4 12″. I am one of them. Someone needs the features and performance of Apple’s Pro notebooks in a 12″ or 13″ form factor that, to me, is just right. In the days leading up to the unveiling, I had hoped that the new MacBook, already rumored to sport blazing fast graphics performance, would essentially be a MacBook Pro. As it turns out, the new aluminum MacBook is really The 13″ MacBook Pro That Could Have Been.

Size vs. Features

As part of my daily work, I often have to use devices ranging from HDV camcorders to RAID arrays that connect by FireWire 400, 800 or eSATA (via ExpressCard). For this, my Mid 2007 MacBook Pro 15″ is the perfect workhorse. But having lugged the five-pound MacBook Pro around almost daily for over a year, I am yearning so badly for something lighter to relieve these aching shoulders of mine.

My first notebook, a Sony VAIO ultraportable, had everything I could ask for in a small, lightweight package and was a pleasure to use. This ultraportable has had me convinced that the size of a notebook does not have to be inversely proportionate to the richness of its features.
So what are my options? The new aluminum MacBook comes closest to being the candidate of choice. The leap in graphics performance alone sets it as a worthy MacBook Pro replacement, and is why it is a contender now when I never took a second look at its predecessor before. But the lack of either FireWire or ExpressCard, both exclusive to the MacBook Pro, is the one deal-breaker.

The FireWire Fiasco

Since the announcement, it is almost impossible to talk about the new aluminum models without mentioning FireWire. A lively debate regarding Apple’s decision to drop FireWire from the MacBook has risen among users; proponents favoring the move cite the fact that FireWire has a smaller marketshare than USB, while opponents see the omission as a blatant maneuver by Apple to protect its Pro product line.

So who’s right and who’s wrong? The answer is a sum of many parts.

The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics chipset in the new portable Macs has been getting all the attention. But little has been said of another internal change: the I/O controller chipset. In the previous-generation MacBook, it is the Intel “Santa Rosa” chipset which governs SATA, USB, Audio, Wi-Fi, and networking. This has been replaced with an NVIDIA integrated controller. What is interesting is that, in the course of designing the GeForce 9400M and its accompanying integrated controller, NVDIA left FireWire out of the list of I/O interfaces supported by its integrated controller.

The Trend Is Bucking

Digging deeper, Apple’s only response so far (in the form of an email ostensibly from Steve Jobs) is that consumer camcorders released in the past two years use only USB 2.0 for connectivity. Specifically, such camcorders record footage into AVCHD files instead of onto tapes. FireWire, for which its high sustained transfer speed is crucial to capturing footage from tape in real-time, is now irrelevant; getting the footage in your solid-state or HDD camcorder into your Mac is now a simple file transfer operation.

Personally, I am of the opinion that the increasing irrelevance of FireWire in those consumer products is conveniently a coup for Apple to leverage FireWire as a differentiator between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. Marketing has won this round.

The good news? There is a FireWire specification called FireWire S800T (IEEE 1394c), which provides the speed of FireWire 800 over a Cat 5 cable. Yes, that’s Gigabit Ethernet. The standard was proposed a year ago; to date, no products have shown for its adoption. I suspect something is brewing at Apple.

The Search Continues

Going back to my search for the imaginary successor to the PowerBook 12″, I do believe a 13″ MacBook Pro would be a huge hit with consumers and professionals alike. Now that both classes share the same unibody form factor, I would think that introducing a 13″ MacBook Pro is more of whether Apple wants to rather than if Apple can. Naturally, if that does happen, Apple would want to protect the sales of the MacBook. Even if it prices this 13″ MacBook Pro close or equal to that of the 15″, I am confident it would still fly off the shelves.

Apple nailed the psyche of Mac users when it stated, in its recent Q4 2008 financial results conference call, that Mac owners are more likely to “postpone purchases… to delay than switch”. And it is true: I love OS X and I will never go back to Windows. I am a professional user whose needs are beyond what the MacBook can give me, but I could really do with a smaller and lighter notebook. For now, I’ll just have to hang on to my Mid 2007 MacBook Pro 15″ for as long as my suffering shoulders can bear.

]]>FireWire-to-USB: MacBook Redeemer?http://gigaom.com/2008/10/30/firewire-to-usb-macbook-redeemer/
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/30/firewire-to-usb-macbook-redeemer/#commentsThu, 30 Oct 2008 22:00:42 +0000http://theappleblog.com/?p=8902Apple’s decision to axe FireWire from the MacBook line is not sitting well with many users, to say the least. For high-quality audio and video transfers, FireWire is the standard for professionals and hobbyists alike. Though USB is technically capable of faster transfer speeds than FireWire 400 (480 Mb/s vs. 400), FireWire has greater effective speed and power distribution because it doesn’t depend on a computer host port.

So what can be done about, short of severe DIY case-cracking, mother-board soldering changes that could result in death and/or dismemberment? One option shows potential. According to ZDNet.com, Pixela offers a FireWire to USB DV transfer cable, designed specifically with digital video transfer in mind.

Don’t go ordering one just yet, though. Currently, the cable only officially supports Windows XP (no Vista, either). So unless you’re running Boot Camp, or virtualization software, you’re out of luck. That said, given the sheer volume of dismayed MacBook owners (and those unwilling to upgrade until they find a solution), it’s likely that OS X support is on the way. Whether that comes in the form of a third-party driver, or (don’t hold your breath) official support and/or hardware from Apple, remains to be seen. When we contacted Pixela, a representative told us that OS X support has been discussed by their planning committee, but no firm decisions to go forward have yet been made.
There are a few problems with this type of workaround. For one, you give up on the fast transfer speeds and power distribution capability of FireWire. Pixela’s cable apparently uses “micro chip” technology to ensure the quality and integrity of the DV transfer are maintained, but this probably doesn’t entirely make up for FireWire’s high sustained transfer rates. And it looks like Pixela might require you to use their proprietary software to perform any transfers, no desktop mounting or destination application selection. There’s also price, since the cable costs $119 before tax. High price to pay for Apple’s omission.

Still, it’s less clunky than analog-to-digital video converters, and prices could drop if demand is high enough and other companies start making similar devices. Apple may also be less than cooperative if the decision to kill FireWire on the MacBook was meant to force people up to the MacBook Pro. We can only hope that, as with the microphone support finally included in the new iPod Touch, Apple eventually sees that hamstringing lower-end devices isn’t the only way to get people to upgrade.

Would you buy a Mac version of this cable, or will it take more than another peripheral to fix this problem?

]]>http://gigaom.com/2008/10/30/firewire-to-usb-macbook-redeemer/feed/71ExpressCard Gadgets for MacBook Prohttp://gigaom.com/2008/10/29/expresscard-gadgets-for-macbook-pro/
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/29/expresscard-gadgets-for-macbook-pro/#commentsWed, 29 Oct 2008 21:00:04 +0000http://theappleblog.com/?p=8650One of the ports included with all the new (and previous generation of) MacBook Pros is an ExpressCard slot. Having never had this type of expansion before, I’ve decided to have a look around and see what uses it can serve. This article will give a brief overview of some of the most popular ExpressCard gadgets available.

Transcend Solid State Device

Without any doubt, this is the ExpressCard device which caught my eye first. It consists of a high capacity, solid state device which inserts into your laptop, giving you an easy way to add some SSD storage. Initially the price of these was prohibitively high, but SSD is becoming evermore appealing as the costs are pushed lower. It comes in three different varieties:

32GB SSD $126.21

16GB SSD $44.68

8GB SSD $28.68

The major use heralded for the card is to enable Vista ReadyBoost — something obviously not appropriate for a MacBook Pro user. However, other tasks which benefit from high speed storage (a Photoshop scratch disk for instance) could see the benefit of the card. Whether it provides a huge advantage over a high capacity USB thumb drive is debatable though, and the ExpressCard price still carries a slight premium.

Macally 5-in-1 ExpressCard Media Reader

Something I was always used to on a Windows desktop was a media card reader. After having a MacBook for a few years, I’ve now become accustomed to just plugging a camera in via USB. That said, I would certainly find an ExpressCard memory card reader particularly useful.

A few readers have received fairly poor reviews, but the Macally offering seems better than most. It is able to convert ExpressCard to Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Secure Digital card, MultiMedia card and xD-Picture Card. It does have some limits on capacity, however:

Memory Stick – up to 128MB

Memory Stick PRO – up to 2GB

Secure Digital – up to 2GB

Multi Media Card – up to 512MB

xD-Picture Card – up to 1GB

This limitation could render the product unsuitable for many professional photographers, or those wanting to use it as a way to plug in fast solid state storage. For basic use, however, it is perfect — and priced at around $20.

SIIG FireWire 800

Sure the MacBook Pro comes with a Firewire 800 port as standard, but more ports could always be welcome. This adaptor provides two FireWire 800 (one 9-pin & one 6-pin) ports for multiple device connections and works with DV camcorders, FireWire hard disks, digital cameras, scanners, CD-RW/DVD drives, video game systems, and other audio/video devices.

The main problem with this idea is that Firewire devices already support ‘daisy chaining’. This is likely to reduce the need for additional ports directly in your laptop, though it is still common to have Firewire devices without an in-built second port. The SIIG Firewire 800 card is priced at around $85 — a comparable price to most FW800 hubs.

Note: I’m aware the above picture is for a different version of the device — the ExpressCard/54

Sonnet FireWire + USB 2.0

The ExpressCard card from Sonnet provides a simple way to add a USB 2.0 port and two Firewire 400 ports to a MacBook Pro. This is particularly appropriate and topical with all the dispute surrounding Apple dropping in-built Firewire 400 ports. With this card, it’s easy to connect to any of your old Firewire devices and also provides an additional USB port.

Any others?

I haven’t touched on one of the other major uses for ExpressCard expansion, that of adding a wireless modem to your MacBook. These allow you to connect a laptop to a 3G or EDGE data network, and they’ll be covered thoroughly in a future article.

Are there any other gadgets you find useful to fill your ExpressCard slot? I’m intrigued to know if I missed anything useful.

]]>http://gigaom.com/2008/10/29/expresscard-gadgets-for-macbook-pro/feed/15Firewire Over Ethernet? Maybe If We Ask Loudly Enoughhttp://gigaom.com/2008/10/21/firewire-over-ethernet-maybe-if-we-ask-loudly-enough/
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/21/firewire-over-ethernet-maybe-if-we-ask-loudly-enough/#commentsTue, 21 Oct 2008 15:25:36 +0000http://theappleblog.com/?p=7848Clearly, Apple’s decision to leave out FireWire ports on the MacBook line has ruffled some feathers. For their part, Apple claims to have left it out to save the $0.25 per port licensing fee attached to including the hardware, which, when considered on the scale of a massive production run, does amount to significant savings. Of course, they recoup some of that amount as royalties, since they are a FireWire patent holder, and therefore a member of the 1394 Trade Association. Which has led some to claim that the decision to axe FireWire was not a cost-saving measure, but instead a profit-boosting one, by forcing consumers who need FW to scale up to a MacBook Pro.

Since Macs support internet and disk sharing over FireWire, it’s only natural to consider the possibility of running FireWire in a similar manner over Ethernet, allowing users to to perhaps plug their video cameras or audio peripherals into older Macs to perform large transfers if they have one, or into specially designed FireWire-to-Ethernet cables or adapters.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to run FireWire over Ethernet using current standards (IEEE 1394/a/b). According to ZDNet, FireWire has more in common with SATA or SCSI which is “dumb” (point-to-point), than Ethernet, which is “smart” (co-ax cable was its “dumb” predecessor).

A new standard in the process of being developed, IEEE 1394c, would allow FireWire to run over cat5 twisted pair cables (Ethernet), at speeds of up to 800Mbps. Implementing IEEE 1394c would require support from Apple via an adapter or changes onboard. Since it’s ultimately still in Apple’s hands, demand from irate consumers will have to outweigh any financial benefit they stand to lose from giving users a cheaper option than upgrading to the Macbook Pro. If the IEEE 1394c standard is passed in time, the speculation is that Apple could include FireWire over Ethernet support with Snow Leopard.

Would this move restore your faith in Cupertino, FireWire faithful, or is it too little, too late?

]]>http://gigaom.com/2008/10/21/firewire-over-ethernet-maybe-if-we-ask-loudly-enough/feed/16Camcorders and USB: Is Steve Jobs Right?http://gigaom.com/2008/10/20/camcorders-and-usb-is-steve-jobs-right/
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/20/camcorders-and-usb-is-steve-jobs-right/#commentsMon, 20 Oct 2008 18:00:35 +0000http://theappleblog.com/?p=7608Much is being made of the lack of FireWire in the new MacBooks. Seems like everyone’s weighed in on this topic, myself included.

Even more recently, an email response to one irate customer set off more controversy. In this email, Steve Jobs himself is alleged to have responded:

Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.

So, is that true? Perhaps the best way to find out is to look at Amazon.com and see what’s selling, then check what interface they use.

I hit the bestsellers list from Amazon for camcorders, and the first thing I noticed is that the Flip series occupies five of the top 10 slots (as of this writing). The Flip supports USB 2.0, so it qualifies, but in case some people would like to have a little more camera representation than that, I decided to include the top 20 (which includes two more Flips).
Not counting the seven Flip cameras, the camcorders rounding out the top 20 are:

I need to make it clear that I make no statement, good or bad, about these companies nor the individual cameras represented here. They were selected solely by virtue of being the Top 20 Bestsellers on Amazon.com at the time of this writing.

As mentioned, the Flips all support USB 2.0, so my next task was to look at all the others and see if they support USB 2.0 for video as well (some cameras may include USB for stills; I wanted to make sure video support was available).

The results? I believe all but one of these models allows USB 2.0 for video. The one exception being the Canon HV30, which appears to include USB 2.0 for still shot transfers only.

Not counting the HV30, it’s interesting to note that prices range from $88 (the Oregon Scientific) to $775 (The Canon HG20), with a few located in what might be considered the “sweet spot” for consumer camcorders in the $300’s.

Of course, if the camcorder you currently own is not due for replacement, and only supports FireWire, this news is of little use to you. I understand that, but then again I’m not trying to answer each individual case; ultimately only you can decide for yourself. Rather, I simply reviewed the current crop of popular camcorders to see if FireWire or USB is the most common interface. Clearly, it’s the latter, and overwhelmingly so. I can’t say I’m too surprised. In my opinion, if Apple didn’t already know this they wouldn’t have pulled FireWire from the MacBook to begin with.

Finally, I’d like to point out that this “top 20” list didn’t just materialize in the last week. It seems clear the movement away from FireWire in the popular camcorder space has been in the works for a while, else they wouldn’t so thoroughly dominate the top 20 now.